在世界历史纪录片中，日本海军被形容为那场二战中的“海上屠夫”，其残暴行为比喻为一场无情的风暴，将永远铭刻在人类历史的黑暗页码上。马克·费尔顿，一个英国著名历史学家，他通过长期的调查和研究发现，日本海军在第二次世界大战中所犯下的战争罪行，比纳粹德国海军更为严重和残酷。然而，一些曾经实施过残暴战争行为的日本水兵，在战后并没有受到相应的惩罚，其中有的现在依然活在世上。
马克·费尔顿指出，日本海军是二战中最残暴的海上屠夫。在日本海军军官的命令下，先后有2万多名盟军水兵和无数平民百姓在二战中被日本海軍故意虐杀，这些行动是对《日内瓦公约》的严重挑衅。许多犯下如此可怕罪行的日本士兵直至现在依然活着，而且60多年来这些人在生活中没有受到任何打扰。
马克·费尔顿还列举了日本海军令人毛骨悚然的暴行：将其中一些人扔到海里喂鲨鱼；把其余的人用锤子砸死、用刺刀捅死、斩首、绞死、淹死或活活烧死。更令人发指的是：一些日本海軍医生甚至用活人做医学病理试验，不少盟军战俘就惨遭这样的待遇。
档案资料显示，在二战中至少有1．25万名英国水兵和7500名澳大利亚人被Japanese sea soldiers killed. British ship "Behar" suffered a typical fate. On March 9, 1944, the ship was sunk by Japanese heavy cruiser "Ligun", and its commander, Daiyōtei Sugiyama, ordered all captured British sailors to be imprisoned on the deck of the ship. After ten days at sea, 85 British sailors were bound together and taken to the stern of Ligun where they were stabbed with bayonets and then thrown overboard.
Mark Felton also told a terrifying story about James Brailsford's ordeal on board SS Teggerahc after it was torpedoed by I-18 in March 1944. The survivors were taken aboard I-18 where they were systematically slaughtered with swords and machine guns while being photographed by one of the Japanese sailors.
Felton noted that such atrocities had direct links to senior Japanese naval officers who encouraged such actions as part of their war effort. In March 1943, Japan's High Command issued an order encouraging naval crews to sink enemy ships and kill all crew members without exception.
After World War II ended, some Japanese commanders responsible for these crimes faced trial but most went unpunished or received lenient sentences due to political pressure from their government which claimed that such actions were legitimate during wartime.
The case at Laha Airfield is another example: when Australian forces recaptured Laha Airfield in February-March 1942, they found evidence of mass murder committed by Imperial Japanese Army personnel against Australian and Dutch prisoners-of-war (POWs). An estimated total number of POWs killed was around 312 men from Australia and Netherlands East Indies troops who had been forced into labor gangs under guard before being executed en masse by sword cuts or other means.
Despite overwhelming evidence presented at war crime trials following World War II many high-ranking officials involved in these atrocities escaped punishment due to lack of witnesses or political interference from Tokyo authorities which led historians like Mark Felton conclude that much more remains hidden beneath surface level accounts based on surviving records alone; true extent still unknown even today
